Dental Bytes – March 2026
Dental Bytes – March 2026 features timely articles for dental professionals on oral health awareness, HIPAA security, infection control, nutrition guidance, and industry updates.
Patient Access to Dental Records: Requirements in California
While a dentist owns patient treatment records, they must provide patients with access to their records and/or a summary of their records. A patient record includes x-rays, photographs, and models, and can include any written or recorded information regarding a…
CMIA Requires Annual Authorization for Specific Disclosures of PHI
The California Medical Information Act (CMIA), which differs slightly from the Federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), was updated in 2004 to require healthcare providers to obtain annual written authorization from a patient for certain disclosures of protected…
HIPAA Training Reminder: Include Email Security for Cyberattack Prevention
It seems like almost every other day, the national media reports on a new data breach. From large corporations to mom-and-pop local businesses, hackers do not discriminate on their targets. Small and mid-sized businesses like dental practices are often targeted…
Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack Highlights Importance of Cybersecurity
On February 21, 2024, Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group and one of the largest healthcare technology companies in the United States, experienced a crippling ransomware cyberattack, considered to be the most serious incident of its kind against a…
HIPAA Security Rule and Multi-Factor Authentication
The Security Rule under the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requires dental providers, as HIPAA-covered entities, to adopt adequate means for safeguarding the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of electronic protected health information (ePHI). One of these safeguards…
Recent HHS-OCR Settlement Actions with Healthcare Entities
Recently, the US Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR)announced three separate Resolution Agreements for potential violations by healthcare providers. The first incident involved a potential violation of federal civil rights laws, while the second…
CA Dental Office Cited by HHS For PHI Disclosure
On December 14, 2022, the Department of Health and Human Service (HHS) announced a resolution agreement with New Vision Dental, a dental practice in California, over the impermissible disclosure of patient protected health information (PHI) in response to online reviews,…
New OCR Cybersecurity Newsletter Covers HIPAA Security Incident Procedures
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently released a new edition of its online OCR Cybersecurity Newsletter, dated October 2022. The Newsletter reviews security procedures to follow in the event of a…
Four OCR Enforcement Actions for HIPAA Violations
On March 28, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced four new enforcement actions against healthcare providers for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. Three of…